This invention relates generally to audio playback equipment and particularly to devices that enable digital audio players to be played through existing cassette tape players.
Digital audio players have found widespread popularity. In part this may be due to the ability to download music and other content from the Internet to a very portable device. For whatever reason, many people now prefer digital audio players to cassette tape players, radios, and compact disc players.
Unfortunately, cassette tape players are more omnipresent than digital audio players. For example, very few vehicles have sound systems that include a digital audio player. Instead, many existing vehicular sound systems include a cassette tape player.
One solution to this problem has been to provide a cassette tape player adapter in the shape of a cassette tape that may be inserted into a cassette tape player. The cassette tape player adapter may include an interface to couple to a digital audio player. As a result, the digital audio player may be played through the cassette tape adapter and ultimately through the vehicular sound system. Such techniques provide a way to utilize the stored database of digital audio on digital audio players when the sound system is not adapted for a digital audio player.
However, these techniques also have a number of disadvantages. The user must operate both the cassette tape player and the digital audio player in order to play music stored on the digital audio player. For example, to play audio from a digital audio player in this way, controls on both the digital audio player and the cassette tape player must be operated. This tends to be awkward and confusing to users.
Thus, there is a need for better ways to enable digital audio players to be used with existing sound systems that include cassette tape players.